Series Preface 5
Introduction 7
Glossary 173
Appendices 177
Bibliography 200
Each volume of the God’s Word For You series takes you to the heart
of a book of the Bible, and applies its truths to your heart.
The central aim of each title is to be:
} Bible centered
} Christ glorifying
} Relevantly applied
} Easily readable
You can use Romans 1 – 7 For You:
To read. You can simply read from cover to cover, as a book that
explains and explores the themes, encouragements and challenges of
this part of Scripture.
To feed. You can work through this book as part of your own person-
al regular devotions, or use it alongside a sermon or Bible-study series
at your church. Each chapter is divided into two shorter sections, with
questions for reflection at the end of each.
To lead. You can use this as a resource to help you teach God’s word
to others, both in small-group and whole-church settings. You’ll find
tricky verses or concepts explained using ordinary language, and help-
ful themes and illustrations along with suggested applications.
These books are not commentaries. They assume no understanding
of the original Bible languages, nor a high level of biblical knowledge.
Verse references are marked in bold so that you can refer to them eas-
ily. Any words that are used rarely or differently in everyday language
outside the church are marked in gray when they first appear, and
are explained in a glossary toward the back. There, you’ll also find
details of resources you can use alongside this one, in both personal
and church life.
Our prayer is that as you read, you’ll be struck not by the contents
of this book, but by the book it’s helping you open up; and that you’ll
praise not the author of this book, but the One he is pointing you to.
Carl Laferton, Series Editor
The letter to the Romans is a book that repeatedly changes the world,
by changing people.
One man Romans changed was the English pastor John Stott.
Stott’s ministry and commitment to evangelism had a great effect on
the church in the UK and US, and perhaps particularly throughout the
developing world, in the twentieth century. He wrote of his:
“love-hate relationship with Romans, because of its joyful-painful
personal challenges … It was Paul’s devastating exposure of uni-
versal human sin and guilt in Romans 1:18 – 3:20 which rescued
me from that kind of superficial evangelism which is preoccupied
only with people’s ‘felt needs.’”
(The Message of Romans, page 10)
Almost five hundred years before Paul’s words called Stott to an evan-
gelism which focused on our relationship with God, Romans changed
two other men, in a way that would completely transform the church.
Martin Luther was a German monk who had been taught that
God required him to live a righteous life in order to be saved. And so
he had grown to hate God, for first requiring of him what he could
not do, and then for leaving him to fail. Then Luther read and finally
grasped the meaning of Romans 1:17—”In the gospel the righteous-
ness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to
last” (NIV2011):
“I labored diligently and anxiously as to how to understand Paul’s
word … the expression ‘the righteousness of God’ blocked the
way, because I took it to mean that righteousness whereby God
is righteous and deals righteously in punishing the unrighteous.
Although an impeccable monk, I stood before God as a sinner
… therefore I did not love a righteous and angry God, but rather
hated and murmured against him …
“Then I grasped that the righteousness of God is that righteous-
ness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us
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1. INTRODUCING
THE GOSPEL
* All Romans verse references being looked at in each chapter are in bold.
†
Words in gray are defined in the Glossary (page 173).
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all his life. To Paul, this gospel is so great that he is willing to separate
himself from anything—wealth, health, acclaim, friends, safety and so
on—in order to be faithful to his calling.
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gospel speaks about, and transforms, all of those things, but only
because it isn’t about us. It is a declaration about God’s Son, the man
Jesus. This Son was:
} fully human: “as to his human nature” (v 3).
} divine: the Son was “declared with power to be the Son of God,
by his resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:4). Paul is not say-
ing that Jesus only became God’s Son when he was raised from
the grave. Rather, he is outlining two great truths about the res-
urrection. First, the empty tomb is the great declaration of who
Jesus is. His resurrection removes all doubt that he is the Son
of God. Second, his resurrection and ascension were his path
to his rightful place; to his rule at God’s right hand (Ephesians
1:19b-22), sitting at “the highest place,” given “the name that is
above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow” (Philippians 2:9-10). God’s Son had humbly become a man,
tasted poverty, endured rejection and suffered a powerless death.
The resurrection is where we see not only that he is the Son of
God, but that he is now the Son of God “in power.”
Not until the end of Romans 1:4 does Paul actually name God’s Son:
“Jesus Christ our Lord.” God’s Son is Jesus, the Greek version of the
Hebrew name Yeshua/Joshua—”God will save,” the fulfiller of all God
“promised beforehand” (v 2). He is Christ, the anointed man whom
God has appointed to rule his people. And he is our Lord, God him-
self. The gospel is both a declaration of Jesus’ perfect rule, and an
invitation to come under that perfect rule, to make him “our Lord.”
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Faith-fuelled Obedience
This is the gospel Paul announces. He has “received grace and apos-
tleship” (v 5—ie: both his job as apostle, and the power to accomplish
it, grace). And his specific role is “to call people from among all the
Gentiles.” The gospel is for God’s ancient people, the Jews—but it is
not only for them. God has commissioned Paul to take the message
of his Son to those who are not Jews. He is God’s “chosen instrument
to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the
people of Israel” (Acts 9:15).
And what is the gospel call? To obey Christ and trust Christ—to live
by “the obedience that comes from faith” (Romans 1:5). What does
this mean? The rest of the book of Romans will explain it! But it is
worth highlighting two things here.
First, it does not mean that Paul is teaching the Gentiles that, to be
saved, they must both have faith and do obedience, as though both
are necessary grounds of being right with God. This is an obedience
that comes from faith—that springs from a wholehearted trust in Je-
sus, God’s Son. Obedience flows out of faith; it is a consequence of
saving faith, not a second condition for salvation.
But second, it does mean that true faith in our hearts brings obe-
dience in our lives. Why? Because the gospel is the declaration that
Jesus is the promised King, the risen and powerful Son of God, who
now invites us in, to enjoy the blessings of his rule. Again, we will see
much more of why we need to be invited, how this invitation is pos-
sible, and how wonderful Jesus’ rule is, in the rest of Paul’s letter. Here,
the point is that real “faith” is faith
in a divine King, to whom we owe
Real faith is faith
our obedience and of whom we
in a divine King, (like Paul) are servants. There will be
to whom we a joyful obedience that flows from
truly trusting this King. As the great
owe our joyful
sixteenth-century Reformer Martin
obedience. Luther put it: “We are saved by faith
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alone, but the faith that saves is never alone.” It brings about grateful,
joyful, trusting obedience.
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2. Where can you see the “obedience that comes from faith” in your
own life?
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